Rapper takes careful commercial pop shot
LL Cool J: 14 Shots to the Dome (Columbia).
MILITANT rap slang would have it that the title of LL Cool J's fifth album, 14 Shots to the Dome was threatening gunshots to the brain, but it seems he felt the 14 pops to the dome represented the possibility of his songs going to number one on the singles charts.
And he is not far off. At least half of the songs sound as if they could top the charts.
Unfortunately, that is not all LL Cool J wants, and that is why 14 Shots is ultimately a failure, albeit a pleasurable one.
LL Cool J wants legendary status. He wants to be one of the handful of rappers who manage to cross over to pop with lasting credibility and power. This has yet to come to a man who has spent the last eight years in a musical flux.
He virtually reprises his landmark 1990 album Mama Said Knock You Out. The first two songs - How I'm Comin' and Buckin' Em Down - are Mama Said revisited with an even harder beat and an identical aggressive heavy bass delivery.
Stand By Your Man is a dead mid-tempo ringer for the Mama track Around the Way Girl, right down to the wispy female chorus. Pink Cookies in a Plastic Bag Getting Crushed by Buildings is a rehash of Mama's 6 Minutes of Pleasure with a more souped up jazz riff.
The album also readily jumps on trends. Straight From Queens employs Lt Stitchie, a current ragamuffin rapper, to reel off a few superfast rhymes. Soul Survivor' s slow Curtis Mayfield funk groove and Ain't No Stopping This are merely clever dance floor filler rehashes.
14 Shots does have its soaring moments, notably when he takes tentative steps towards addressing social issues.
On All We Got Left is the Beat, he describes what it is like to be an underprivileged minority, over a rump-shaking beat. Diggy Down, a soulful drum-driven rap with an infectious chorus, takes a further look at today's world.
Crossroads, the concluding track, is the album's only original. Classical strings and a thumping beat vie with LL Cool J's rage as he describes the possible end of the world.
It is the one shot that should hit the dome with a bullseye this summer.
